Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB Political Editor on APEC summit wrapping up, Christopher Luxon meeting international leaders

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has wrapped up his whirlwind trip to the APEC summit in Peru. 

At the summit, Luxon met with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time. The meeting was one of many bilaterals to take place. 

Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls tells Mike Hosking the main takeaway for New Zealand is to get face time with international leaders. 

“The Prime Minister needs to be there to let people know how we can be relevant.”  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So what got done today picked Well, PM had a
face to face of course with China's leaders, so that
was a big deal. A little bit of glad handing there.
I think they got stuck on walls now and we
really wanted to talk much about the wars or do
anything about them anyway. Our political leedit to Jason Wolves
has just a ride back in the country. Jason morning,
good morning, makee and you're on the seven five to seven.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
No, no, no. We took a commercial flight, this time
with the Latham Airlines to Chile and then to Lima.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
I was desperate to give the seven five seven some
good raps, given it's been going so well so lately.
How's Latam by the way as an airline the day?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
All right, Oh it's fine. I mean, I can complain
about the fact that my headset didn't work very well
on the way over there, but I should probably just
be telling you the instead of watching movies. I was
working very hard on my stories, so that probably was
for the best then.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Okay, So some McLay wood wall sustainable exports? Was that
of any I mean, what the hell happened? Did anything
happen at all? Our outside of the g meeting.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
No, I mean that was the set piece and the
mean thing about it. I mean you can look at
some of the more what politicians like to call announceables
and say that there was some sort of deal with
Iceland and a couple of other tries that were signed
by McLay. But the main thing about APEX for a
small country like New Zealand is really just having some
face time. I mean you need to be at these
meetings because it's basically the only way that small countries

(01:11):
like New Zealand can meet up and have face to
face meetings with leaders like Shu jing Ping. I mean
it's a bit of an opportunity cost because if we
weren't there, everybody would be asking, well, why the hell not.
So it's actually good to have the FaceTime and sit
down because on an international stage, you know, New Zealand
is seen as nice but not particularly relevant a lot
of the time, so it needs the Prime Minister to
be there to let people know how we can be relevant.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
And she seemed bullish, didn't he. I mean he had
nice words to say about us, which is something I guess,
mind you, he'll be backing that up against Trump. Of course,
at the moment.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Indeed, I mean they always do have nice words to
say to each other in the before the bilateral meeting
and the opening comments, and then the robber really hits
the road afterwards. When it comes to the actual meetings themselves,
most people will be surprised to learn they're only about
twenty twenty five minutes long when you get into them.
But the Prime Minister, Chris Luckson said that China did
actually raise its concerns with New Zealand wanting to or

(02:01):
looking into joining the orchest Pillar two Pact and just
saying basically seeing that that was lining up closer with
the US in the Pacific Islands, which China were very
not happy about.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Any chat about this Chinese port in Peru and the
opening of that three and a half billion dollars there's
a lot of port and a lot of influence in
that part of the world.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, I mean China are everywhere. I mean at every hotel,
Chinese TV were playing the China Daily newspaper around, there's
Chinese flags everywhere everywhere. It's basically there's a lot of
Chinatown activity happening in Lima because they, I mean, they've
given so much money to eight, the hosting of Apex
and be this sort of China soft power approach to
many countries around the world by just injecting money into them,

(02:40):
and that's sort of their way of sidling up and
becoming friends. So everywhere you go you see China. I mean,
I was in Chogham in Samoa a couple of weeks
ago and it was the same sort of situation there.
In fact, at one point a Chogham sign has kind
of fell down slightly and behind it there was a
brand for a Chinese company that were building a whole
bunch of stuff in Samoa. So it's literally everywhere around

(03:01):
the world that you go at this point in time.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
So what's the story for the day? Jason? You've got
to day and lou for the extra time. You're going
straight to the office. What's going on here?

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Oh, I'm heading back now, so I'm an awkward airport
and then I've got a couple of like of crosses
lined up before having a bit of a nap tomorrow
before going back to Parliament because I can't miss the hiccua.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Make really I can, but mind Jess, you're employed too, Cavert.
Nice to see you, mate, Jason walls, and news talks.
He'll be political a litt for.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
More from the mic Asking breakfast. Listen live to news talks.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
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